Best Retail Music Store

Zia Record Exchange

Readers Pick

They used to tout themselves as "Arizona's only real record store," and given the current state of the music industry, this may, in fact, be true. In spite of the overblown posters for heavy metal, post punk and death rock, and a penchant for lots of piercings and black among its clientele and the help, this is a multigenre shop. While the stores display a huge variety of rock, Zia also offers separate sections for blues, reggae, hip-hop/rap, soundtracks and vinyl. There is a vast selection of used CDs that, thankfully, have been fully integrated with the rest of the CDs. In addition to the music, there is an expansive selection of DVDs. Best of all, this place smells like a record store--old-school, of course.